Megan Gulick: Battered Bunnies 03/09

Every time I encounter a character created by Megan Gulick, I feel as if I am face to face with a cartoon interpretation of her personality. The first time I met Megan I was intimidated. It wasn't her wide-eyed stares or energetic expressions that threw me off guard, it was her confidence. This pixie-like woman is not afraid to be quirky, she is notintimidatedby anyone else around her, and she is above all a wonderful addition to the pop-surrealism art movement.

Megan's opening at LITM, located in Jersey City, NJ, was a giant collection of creatures and characters of all shapes, color, and sizes. Gulick is a modern painter usually creating in acrylic. The display of"Battered Bunnies" was not a story of sad bunnies and their search for the perfect carrot, oh nonono!!! These bunnies were paws deep in bondage, were tied up, were scared and at the same time, adorable.

Tara Thurber and myself, Virginia, were asked to follow Megan's life size battered bunnies around and see what happens when they were unleashed onto alarge art loving crowd. The result was entertaining, humorous, and slightly painful for some.Pleasetake a look at our gallery of images... Save them and feel free to share them where ever you can. For more information about Megan, please look below for her bio, statement, and her answers to the James Lipton top ten...

Megan Gülick grew up in the heart of Texas; but as soon as she found a hole in the fence, she slipped through and, ultimately, got as far as Jersey City. Her road there wasn’t a bee-line by any means, and the characters she met along the way inspired a painting or three, with some of the resemblances being (unfortunately) uncanny.

Way back when, as a student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she spent a year in Amsterdam at the Gerrit Reitveld Academie, studying in the “Vrij Media” Department under Henk de Vroom. Eventually she was back in Chicago with big, big plans. Pretty quickly, she realized that a little elbow room never hurt anyone, and getting sick of anthrax scares in the CTA, she moved back to Texas to settle down as a graphic designer. There, the skies at night were big and bright, the WalMart greeters were smiling, the slow-smoked BBQ was tender and beer was always ice cold. Still, something was missing. So, naturally, she fled to Canada. With a stable career designing drugstore inserts, and a new puppy, Megan thought she’d fulfilled her destiny. But life is funny that way...

One night she bumped into a bona fide philosopher—and fellow ex-pat—whose charms were awfully hard to resist. She made him marry her. He took a job in Jersey and coaxed her back down to the states, using circular logic and puppy dog eyes.So, here’s Megan today, perfecting her Jersey Girl accent, painting 7 days a week, drinking mid-range scotch and taking diligent notes for efficient subway routes.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT: MEGAN GÜLICK

The three painting series, “Battered Bunnies,” “Barnyard Buddies” and the “Fresh Fish,” are character studies for episodes of the Granny Ninja graphic novel I am currently developing. These characters are inspired from the miscellaneous beasties around me, past and present, friend or foe. My picture-making process includes a mish-mash of layers of acrylic, ink, varnish, hemm'ing, hawww'ing and climbing the walls. Also, in case you're curious: Granny Ninja will be making her debut this October, just in time for the JC Artists' Studio Tour. Stay tuned!